The Customer
by practicalamanda
Summary: "I tried getting my son into cars once," the man said suddenly. "We tried to rebuild a car in our garage. I wanted the opportunity to spend more time with him since he goes to boarding school. I think he took it the wrong way though." set post BTW


**I noticed that I'm super hard on Blaine's Dad in most of my stories even thought canonically I think that they just suffer from a lack of communication. Hope you enjoy.**

"You sure you're good here for an hour or so?" Burt asked, collecting his things to go out on a call with the tow truck. He asked out of habit more than anything. Kurt had been left in charge of the shop more times than either of them could count at this point.

"Yup," Kurt said unconcernedly from the desk where he was filing some paper work, "I'll take care of the minor stuff, but if anyone needs anything else I'll wait until you get back." Kurt was more than capable of making major repairs as well, but he found that customers were more comfortable if a more experienced mechanic was at least present when they brought their cars in.

"Alright dude, I'll be back in a bit," Burt said hopping into the truck. "Try to get those oil changes done before I get back."

"Got it, Dad," Kurt called out, still not looking up from his paper work. As soon as he saw his dad's car disappear down the road he turned the stereo up. Burt let him play music while he was working, but he was always complaining that it was too loud. Kurt loved to blast music so that he could barely hear himself think anything but the lyrics, a habit he'd picked up from his boyfriend, Blaine. The two of them had spent countless hours lying next to each other on one of their beds, letting music wash over them or dancing around together, singing along until they were horse.

Right now he was listening to the Human League, a band that he had always appreciated, but more recently he found that he got a small ironic pleasure from listening to them after the "Rachel Berry House Party Train-wreck Extravaganza," as mercedes had taken to calling it. For a few months he refused to listen to them, but since he and Blaine had gotten together it was a small, albeit a little childish, reminder that he had won that round.

He was just getting started on the oil changes his Dad had mentioned when he heard the bell on the door jangle and a man walked into the shop. He was dressed in an expensive looking suit. It was a little drab for Kurt's taste, but it was obviously finely made and Kurt could appreciate the fine tailoring. He looked like he was around his father's age, but his face had none of the kind approachability of his father. He looked like a man that wasn't to be trifled with.

Kurt put on his best 'interacting with customers' face and approached he man, "Hello sir, welcome to Hummel Tires and Lube. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah, I um...need to talk to a mechanic," the man said and it was all Kurt could do to keep form rolling his eyes at the obvious comment. He powered through anyway.

"My dad's the owner, but he's out right now. If it's small I can take care of it," Kurt said, his cheery voice never wavering.

The man eyed Kurt skeptically. It was not necessarily an unkind look, but more surprised. Kurt wasn't delusional. He knew that he looked like an unlikely candidate to be working on cars. He was wearing coveralls, but his hair was still perfectly coifed from school and he had embroidered his name in loopy purple letters onto his breast pocket. "It's not a huge thing," the man finally said. "I just have a flat tire and I still have a long drive ahead of me so I don't want to rely on a donut. I'm going to an important meeting in Detroit or I would change it myself, but I can't show up covered in oil," the man laughed a little, finally softening his features. He didn't seem all that bad, just a little stiff. "I can wait for your dad to come back if you want I don't want to make you..."

"Look, sir, with all due respect," Kurt cut in, "I know I don't really look the part, but I promise you, I've been working on cars since I was old enough to hold a wrench. I got this."

The man seemed a little embarrassed that Kurt had called him out, but he nodded his agreement anyway and the man led him out to his car.

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"So you've been working here since you were a kid?" The man asked. He was standing a bit awkwardly behind Kurt as he fitted the car with a new tire. Kurt was used to customers being a bit surprised by him, but this man seemed a little different, almost like he was constantly on the brink of saying something.

"Yeah, um...my mom died when I was eight and we didn't have enough money for a Nanny so I just sort of grew up in his place. I couldn't start making any serious repairs until I was about thirteen, but I did my first oil change when I was nine," Kurt said proudly.

"That's good...that you're close to your dad."

"He's the greatest man I know," Kurt said almost absentmindedly.

"I tried getting my son into cars once," the man said suddenly. "We tried to rebuild a car in our garage. I wanted the opportunity to spend more time with him since he goes to boarding school. I think he took it the wrong way though." Kurt paused his work for a moment to give the man a question glance, not really getting where the misunderstanding could come in, "I um...I think he thought I was trying to make him straight," the man chuckled a again, just as forced as the last time.

Ah, there it was, Kurt thought to himself. The man's behavior suddenly started to make a bit more sense. Kurt probably represented a lot or raw feelings for him, an obviously gay teenager, working in a tire shop shoulder to shoulder with his dad. "If you don't mind me saying so, sir, I bet your son would like to hear you say that. It's hard being out in Ohio. He's probably used to jumping to conclusions about everyone. You just have to be really clear with him."

The man smiled, his first genuine one of the afternoon, "car repair and a therapy session, what else could a guy ask for?"

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Kurt finished up soon after that and led the man back into the shop to ring him up. He was a bit sweaty from working outside so he pulled down the top of his coveralls to reveal the tshirt he was wearing underneath.

"Dalton Academy—is that where you go to school?" the man asked, looking at Kurt's tshirt.

"Well, I used to go there, but I just transferred back to public school. My boyfriend still goes there this is his shirt," Kurt said gesturing down the the Dalton Soccer shirt he was wearing.

"Oh, well he probably knows my son then. He's on the team at Dalton as well."

Kurt froze for a moment. Despite popular opinion, Dalton was not a gay school and as far as he knew Blaine was the only gay kid on the soccer team. Kurt decided to take a leap, "Mr. Anderson?"

The man looked up in surprise at the sound of his name, "How do you know my name?" he asked.

Kurt took a deep breath, and stuck his hand out for a shake, "Mr. Anderson, my name is Kurt Hummel. I'm Blaine's boyfriend. It's really nice to finally meet you."


End file.
